I can't offer research just opinion base don many years of middle school teaching. While TBL claims to improve engagement. I think it does so for students who are already motivated but mostly extrinsically. In oterh words, motivation per se is not the problem, just the level of effort because the motivation is extrinsic. In the middle school a lot of students may not even have the necessary level of motivation to get them started. They will not engage even with the resonsibility of teams and will undermine the process from the beginning. The outcomes in my opinion are likely to be worse for the team thand other methods. IF the level of motivation of all of the students is adequate, it may work.

You might be interested in the attached article and the following articles in my ResearchGate:

Kantola, M. & Kettunen, J. (2012). Integration of education with research and development and the export of higher education, On the Horizon, 20(1), 7-16. 

Kettunen, J., Penttilä, T. & Kairisto-Mertanen, L. (2013). Innovation pedagogy and desired learning outcomes in higher education, On the Horizon, accepted for publication, 21(4), 333-342.

Hello Zorena,

It would appear that (CL) and (TBL) are identical except in two fronts. TBL work. Issues of is long term grouping(semester) and this is not a requirement of CL (teams can change after each unit). TBL includes individual homework assignments while CL homework is group home work.

Similarities, active learning, interpersonal skills, group decision making, social interdependence, and learning resource skills.

In my opinion however, in middle school these learning systems would be a disaster for two basic fundamental reasons. The age of the children, and the differing SES levels. At this age children are moving into adolescent and all that entails both emotionally, cognitively, and physically. This is a time were anything can set a child off, behaviors change, gender differences, and a host of other issues these young people are going through. Secondly, SES levels can have a profound effect on the individual students participation in off campus work. Having a computer, access to the internet, books, parental help, ect.

Last the point Mark brought up that being the grade is a team grade and only one can bring the grade down.

For these issues I know from experience getting one group based unit in high school is hard enough but having the whole semester on group based work

at this age is just not a good idea in my opinion.

I hope this helps,

Douglas

Dear Zorena please check my profile and you will find some interesting findings from my research. https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Nikolaos_Pellas

with kind regards

NP

Thanks for your response. Have you any experience using TBL in your classroom setting(s)? 

Dear Zorena,

I would suggest that every teacher has some TBL experience by way of group work. I used group work work for debates, building a government, and presentations of a foreign land. 

In this sense we all have had some form of TBL or TBL is some form of group work. The one "stage" of TBL however I have not used is grading on a team bases for the reasons I mentioned earlier.

Douglas

Dear Dr. Zorena Leatherbury , Pl. this article talk about this differences:

Article The effects of team-based learning on learning outcomes in a...

Dear Zorena Leatherbury ,

Team-based learning, or TBL, is an application-oriented teaching method that combines small- and large-group learning by incorporating multiple small groups into a large group setting. It has been increasingly used in postsecondary and professional education over the past two decades.